Tickets still remain to see Alabama coach Nick Saban speak at Team Focus dinner in Mobile

Alabama head coach Nick Saban speaks at the USA Mitchell Center in 2010 during the "A Night of Champions with Nick Saban" to benefit Team Focus. Saban will again be the feature speaker at Monday's Team Focus event at the Mobile Convention Center. (Press-Register/ John David Mercer)

Mobile, Alabama -- Last year, Alabama football coach Nick Saban told the audience at Team Focus' "An Evening of College Football" event that he liked his team's disposition better than that of a 2010 squad that finished 10-3.

This year, he's set to return to Mobile fresh off his second national title in five years in Tuscaloosa. Saban will again be the featured speaker at Team Focus' benefit dinner Monday at the Mobile Convention Center, with Crimson Tide radio announcer Eli Gold also scheduled to appear.

Proceeds from the event, which begins at 5:30 p.m. with a silent auction, will benefit Team Focus, an organization founded by former Pitt football coach and ESPN announcer Mike Gottfried and his wife Mickey to provide mentors and positive male role models for fatherless boys.

Saban got involved with the charity shortly after becoming head coach at Alabama in 2007, Gottfried said.

"I got ahold of him right away and he came down the first year, before he even coached a game," Gottfried said of Saban. "He's been involved in so many things -- him and his wife -- in the state of Alabama. I think it's a tribute to him to take some time and do so many things."

Saban, who founded his own Nick's Kids Fund with wife Terry when he was coaching at Michigan State, said during his appearance at last year's event that a desire to help children was passed on to him from his father, who founded the youth football league in his tiny West Virginia hometown.

"My dad was: No man stands as tall as when he stoops to help a child," Saban said last year. "I feel like Mike and Mickey have done as much as anybody probably in terms of helping young people be successful, creating opportunities. You can have talent, you can have work ethic, but you've got to have some opportunities too."

A few tickets still remain for Monday's dinner, priced at $75 apiece or $750 for a table of 10. They can be purchased by calling the Team Focus office at 251-635-1515. Sponsorship packages are also available.

Included in the silent auction will be tickets to the BCS national championship game, the SEC championship game and a New Orleans Saints game, as well as various memorabilia.A live auction will follow the silent auction, and dinner is set for 6:45 p.m.

"It's an economic time when everything is so tight financially," Gottfried said. "It's just so important for us to be able to continue."